This is my personal blog. I was Branch Secretary of Lambeth UNISON from 1992 to 2017 and a member of the National Executive Council (NEC) of UNISON, the public service union (www.unison.org.uk) from 2003 to 2017.
I am Chair of Brighton Pavilion Constituency Labour Party and of the Sussex Labour Representation Committee (LRC).
Neither the Labour Party nor UNISON is responsible for the contents of this personal blog. (Nor is my employer!)

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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Late night holiday reading

While others relax on holiday with trashy novels I was continuing my bedtime reading of the TUC Preliminary Agenda and was driven to online comment by Motion P84 from the Communication Workers Union;

“Political representation of members

Congress recognises the lack of adequate representation at political level for the members of affiliated unions. Congess notes that New Labour, as currently constituted, is now failing to attract the support of our members and that its vote at the 2009 European Election reached an historic low. The present Government’s policy of continuing privatisation, cuts in Government spending and failure to remove the anti-trade union laws is unlikely to change this in the near future.

Congress therefore calls on the General Council to convene, at the earliest opportunity, a conference of all affiliated unions to consider how to achieve effective political representation for our members.”

Even last year those who could see the need for a new approach to political campaigning by the trade unions could not win the support of the leadership of the largest unions. Now the CWU will put the other affiliated unions on the spot.

The genie Dave Prentis let out of the bottle in June may be about to grant some wishes…

3 comments:

Hmmm, this sounds vaguely familiar....oh wait I read about this in A level history....origins of the Labour party and all that.Wow, I've always said history runs in cycles but actually experiencing it is fantastic. Next question is how do I get to go to congress....